By Hans Ngala
New data from the US-based Pew Research Center has revealed that the number of Christians in the UK, France, Uruguay, and Australia fell below 50 percent between 2010 and 2020 in these countries.
While Christians were the majority in these countries in 2010, the proportion of Christians in each country was 49 percent, 46 percent, 44 percent, and 47 percent, respectively, in 2020, just a decade later.
According to ‘NewsWeek’, quoting The Pew Research Center: “Millions of Christians across the globe have been leaving the religion in recent years, resulting in the number of Christians in many countries dropping in the last decade, Pew Research Center reported.
The center said that “religious switching” could be the main reason behind this, which refers to a person leaving one religion to join another, or abandoning religion entirely.
According to Professor David Voas, who teaches social science at University College London, “The reason the U.K., France, Uruguay and Australia no longer have Christian majorities, is because of the “continuation of a long, gradual process of religious disaffiliation that’s been going on for many decades”, adding that the “drift away from religion is largely generational.”
Another professor, Paul Seabright, who teaches economics at Université Toulouse Capitole, France, said that “Many still believe in God but don’t declare themselves members of a particular church or even a particular religion, and those who don’t believe in God are more comfortable saying so openly than their parents used to be”.
Experts also warn that more countries could lose their Christian majorities inthe coming years, notably in Africa and Europe.
Overall, the data showed that 120 out of the 201 countries and territories studied had Christian majorities in 2020, which was four fewer than in 2010.
